Ancel on Xbox One: Microsoft may have been right, but 'you can't force people to like DRM'

Microsoft was "going in the right direction" with its original vision for Xbox One, but it mismanaged its communication over the console's DRM and "economical model", Rayman creator Michel Ancel believes.

Discussing the next-generation of consoles with VideoGamer.com last week, Ancel said that he believes "Microsoft maybe tried to move a bit too fast" with Xbox One, and failed to explain the possibilities offered by the console's original policies.

"They are going in the right direction but a bit too fast," said Ancel. "You need to bring people [in] with your ideas to make them understand. They can't understand everything if you don't let them experience things themselves."

Microsoft's major stumbling block was the way in which it communicated Xbox One's Kinect requirements and DRM policy, Ancel suggests.

"The good thing is to say, 'You want something and I allow you to have that thing'," he says. "Here it was more like, 'I know what you want and I'm going to force you to like that thing.' And people are not going to like that way, especially the gamers.

"It's very interesting. If you look at the smartphones, for example, it's really like, [they] don't force you to do this or that. It's very like, free games, games you go to buy, and in fact it's more about letting the people... making them want something.

"I'm not sure that Microsoft - with the Kinect and the economical model - I'm not sure they were making people want to see those things."

But despite the controversy Microsoft faced over its initial approach, Ancel says Xbox One's focus on digital may have been a "very good" direction for the console to take.

"Maybe they are right with the fact that this is the future and this is going to be very good," he continues, "but you can't force people to like something."

Microsoft reversed its decision on its original Xbox One DRM policies last month following mass criticism from fans, adopting a similar sharing system to the current Xbox 360.

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User Comments

Allow me to say this. I don't think it's EVER right to have DRM crap like this on the xbox.. "Early" or not.. It should never, ever happen. It is NOT ever going to be the future of gaming. Ever. Man, I just made an account on here just to say this. :P

Needlessly taking choice away from the consumer isn't the right direction. I really don't need a developer to tell me that pro-developer policies are the right direction for me. Seriously, just save some face and don't put yourself on the same bandwagon as Microsoft. No amount of PR would've helped them if they had stayed with their policies. The mandatory Kinect isn't helping much either. The XBox One is, not surprisingly, lagging far behind the PS4 in pre-orders according to all available data. Microsoft shot themselves in the foot.

The playstation camera only comes to $49 it would of still been cheaper than the xbox one if included, also the decision was made ages ago to cut the camera maybe even last year way before the xbox one was even fully announced.

Sony were doing the exact same thing with the PS Eye and only dropped it's mandatory inclusion when they realised the Xbox would be cheaper and include the superior Kinect module. Course there's still an element of price cut alongside the withdrawal of mandatory PS Eye, but they had the same idea. Just minus another forced implementation in digital DRM.

I wonder what he reaction to mandatory Kinect would have been if the price point had been similar to PS4 and there had no DRM. Makes me think that it would have been better received without the shadow of DRM-gate hovering over it.

He does have a point. If only the Kinect 2.0 weren't being forced on consumers (with the inflated pricetag that came with it), and it were a sensible pricepoint, the original envisioned strategy *could* have worked.